The ball is resting, the excavators are rolling: The work on the new training ground including floodlights has started for the football players of the WSV Unterammergau.
Unterammergau - Normally the second half of the season would already be in full swing if the first preliminary decisions regarding promotion and relegation could already emerge. But nothing is normal in times of Corona. The amateur clubs in the region are doomed to do nothing: no training, no games, no social gatherings in the clubhouse.
A club in the district is very busy these days - the WSV Unterammergau. After various preparatory work was carried out last year, another project is now starting that the football department is organizing completely independently - namely the general renovation of the training field with the installation of a competitive floodlight system. Head of division Leonhard Gansler: "We decided to go ahead with the project despite Corona." Although the financing is causing headaches for those responsible: the considerable sum of 163 810 euros is in the room. A lot of money for a small club.
Fixed canceled: No income
One thing in particular has prompted the WSV department to take action now. There is very high government funding - 55 percent! Gansler comments: “The funds of the Bavarian State Sports Association are now available, but the funding is limited. Who knows what would be next year. ”The municipality gives a subsidy of 18,500 euros. This leaves a “financing remainder” of a good 55,000 euros. Money that the WSV must somehow obtain: through own funds, donations, loans. The division currently has no income, and the planned celebrations such as the half-moon party and club tournament had to be canceled due to Corona. In Unterammergau you have to rely on every euro. Division head Gansler hopes "that we will somehow make ends meet financially".
For the WSV, there is no question that the renovation is urgent. At the moment training is more or less on a meadow, with sparse vegetation, holes, cracks, small stones and a gradient of 2.40 (!) Meters. Five youth and senior teams complete ten training sessions each week. Now the space should be enlarged, repaired, leveled, leveled and provided with drainage. It would then also correspond to the official dimensions of the DFB.
With the floodlights "a real bargain"
But what good is a retreaded training ground if you can no longer train in autumn because it is getting dark? According to their boss, the soccer players of the WSV “made a real bargain”. A used, technically but still fully functional floodlight system was dismantled on a football district sports facility in Munich. The Unterammergauers made an inquiry to the city, and indeed: It worked! The six masts, 16 meters high with eight spotlights, were awarded to them more or less free of charge. A player's father took over the transport and the coup was perfect. This facility is now to be set up again at the new training ground. The future lawn base layer, a humus / sand mixture, is already stored on site. The lawn in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen ski stadium has been renewed. With the help of an AH player, the WSV grabbed the sand-soil mixture underneath and carted it in 70 truck trips with 40-ton trucks up Ettaler Berg to Unterammergau. Saved money again.
So now we can start building, in summer everything should be ready. A nice gift for your 50th birthday. Until the new course is used, training takes place on the square in Altenau.
